Growing Rice Plants near Shibuya

 
Our school Tsukukoma, standing in a city in Tokyo, has a unique program for the 1st graders of the junior and senior high school students.  They grow rice plants at a rice field near the school.  They do every task all by themselves.  First, in April, the students seed rice in planters.(#1)  In June, when the seeds have grown into seedlings, they plant them in the rice field.(#2)  They sometimes start playing to get muddy all over themselves.  They can also see a lot of frogs and crayfish there.  In September, they put up some nets over the plants and sometimes make scarecrows(#3) to keep birds away.  In October, the rice harvest, they cut rice plants with a sickle.(#4)  They can see a lot of grasshoppers here and there.  They carry the bunches to the school to dry them on a wooden frame.(#5)  In November, about a month after that, they put the bunches through the threshing machine to get grains.(#6, #7)  The harvest amounts to about three or four hundred kilograms in total.  In December, they hold a rice-cake pounding and eating event at school.(#8)  The rest is to be cooked and given to the graduating students and the new students the next spring.(#9)  It is our tradition that has been lasting for more than 60 years.  It is also a good opportunity for the students to experience nature in Tokyo.